ypsi~dixit

I absolutely love that milkweed! (nice shot, too) and have wanted some for years. Does it do best in sun? And does one have to dig it up from alongside a country road or would the nursery have it?

Thanks Addiann. Yes, you can buy seeds from the many native-to-Michigan milkweeds here. The ones I have are Common Milkweed, but aas you can see there is a wide variety of flower type and color. Another alternative is to wait till fall and I would be glad to mail you a pod or two gratis (if so, please drop me a line at ypsidixit [at] gmail (dot) com.)

Of note in raising milkweeds is that the seeds need an artificial cold treatment (in fridge) to mimic the cold treatment they'd get outdoors after falling to the ground in fall. You can do this easily in Ziploc bage with a bit of paper towels, or just put the seeds in a pot of fresh damp potting soil in the fridge. Here's how to raise milkweed from seed, including cold treatment tips.

Pretty as it is, this plant (all species) is highly toxic. When animals graze on it (due to lack of other forage) they can go into a coma and die. Fascinatingly, the monarch butterfly exploits this property of the plant. By eating milkweed leaves, the caterpillars incorporate the toxins into their bodies, rendering the adult monarch poisonous and bitter-tasting to birds (this is why the copycat non-poisonous viceroy butterfly mimics the poisonous monarch).

Anyways, my milkweed are in almost-full sun, growing on a sandy mini-hill. Everything you ever wanted to know about milkweeds. Hope that helps!

wow, what a great site! I had no idea there were so many kinds. And they're all beautiful. Since most of them seem to be out of stock now, I'm thinking later in the fall may be the ticket with these folks. If I go the fall route you're saying I should keep them in the fridge and perhaps a time in the freezer to mimic the winter. Not at all hard. The hard part is finding the sun in my new yard. Nearly impossible. I'm going to do some majoring weeding (of large branches as well as puny volunteer trees) when I get there, which may help. Surely I can come up with a few sunny beds.

I fell in love with the one called "butterfly milkweed"

Is that the bright red one, A. tuberosa? It is gorgeous and incandescent. Would be a show-stopper in any garden. And so far my milkweeds have proved to be aggressive spreaders, increasing their patch by about 100% in size per year, so I'm guessing it'd be a pretty carefree plant; if anything, you'd have to trim back unwanted plants.

Yes, as you say they'd need a fake winter in the fridge. I would follow the procedure outlined in the page linked above. It sounds pretty easy to me and I might do this to grow a few new plants for additional garden areas.

A bonus is that it's a native plant. These tend to have very deep root systems and are a big help in soaking up rain instead of letting it run into storm water systems, as do shallow-rooted plants like most lawn grasses.

And you'll get butterflies! :) (And, I'd say it's safe to bet, hummingbirds--even in Lansing. The plant is bright red, which hummers love, and has the kind of deep flowers to probe that they like. Just a guess, though).

All the varieties do seem to want full sun, so I hope you're successful in making some in your yard. If you eventually plant some, I'd be very interested to hear how it goes!

p.s. I was thinking of planting some new milkweed plants along my front fence, since they're so decorative, but I realized that with their aggressive spreading habits they'd likely spread into my neighbor's lawn and I don't think he'd like that. So they're probably better grown in an area that can be controlled if necessary. Just a thought.

yes, I kind of deduced that from your description of how yours multipled in the scant three-year period.......I'm very excited about a new yard to play with, and it appears I'll be hacking through at least three different invasive ground covers before I hit enough paydirt to plant anew. Ah gardening.

yes, the bright red one. Isn't it a stunner? I'm looking forward to going back to this site in the fall.

Addiann: That is exciting that you have a whole new yard to plan out. Congratulations on your (apparent) move!

3 invasive ground covers?! How lovely. Are any of them "Creeping Charlie" aka "gill-over-the-ground" aka ground ivy? This guy is everywhere in my yard; I've never seen such an aggressive plant. Hope that one is not plaguing you.

Yep, that red one is a knockout. A real show plant. I'm hoping they'll have more seeds in the fall at the catalog site (as you know this is the end of the planting season so in a way I'm not surprised they've run out...oh well).

no, I'm totally familiar with C. Charlie. In fact most of my current front lawn is a combination of that and clover. It's green, eh what? I'm not a grass fanatic. Of course my next door neighbor wishes I were, since Charlie moves right into her lawn as if invited. The new house has some long-cared-for ground covers. The least problemmatic is Pachasandra (sp?) There is also a lot of English Ivy, which is a problem on brick I've heard, and a lot of Vinca. These last two have ganged up and taken over in the heavily shaded back yard. Not a bad look, of course, all around the patio, but it'll be digging hell I am sure.

That's my attitude, one born of desperation: "it's green, good enough." Vinca I like; have some of that. English Ivy I have along the shady north side of the house, where it's very happy to twine among the big ferns.

Creeping Charlie I have found to be pretty much ineradicable, a plant Hydra that keeps sprouting new heads even as you lop them off. It's green. Good enough.

.... and pretty when in bloom, if you tend to not mow the back yard very frequently...